TOWARDS A POLICY FOR BROADCAST EVALUATION

ABSTRACT

It is natural that researchers should take it for granted that evaluation and research are highly necessary activities for organisations using or designing educational television and radio. There are many producers and managers though who are by no means convinced of the value or practicality of systematic and objective evaluation and research, so it may be worthwhile briefly looking at why such activities are necessary. Perhaps more worrying for those who advocate the cause of evaluation and research is the singular lack of success it has had so far in bringing about a continuing and lasting improvement in the way television and radio are used in education. To advocate the need for increasing research at a time of economic crisis may seem to many organisations like throwing a drowning man both ends of a rope. It may then be worth looking at why evaluation and research have had such little impact, and what might be done to improve their effectiveness and usefulness.

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Notes on contributors

A.W. Bates

Dr. Tony Bates is Head of the Audio‐Visual Media Research Unit, Open University. He was organiser of the 1st International Conference on Evaluation and Research in Education Broadcasting held at the Open University in April 1976, at which he contributed the present paper.